Monday, November 07, 2011

Veterans, We Love You

As my Super Stars were deciding what "thankful" meant, one of them asked "Mrs. Sommerville, what's that holiday after Halloween, but before Thanksgiving? The one for Army guys like my dad?"

Veterans Day, perhaps not the holiday that many students of civilian parents would group together with the usual Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas trio, but one that we as teachers on a military post observe with respect, not only for our nation's Armed Forces past and present, but for their families and children as well.

After we identified who veterans were and are, and agreed that veterans not only gave us our freedom but continue to protect it as well, I asked what kind of art project we should make for our hallway display. Our shared kindergarten wavelength being what it is, one student began "Veterans gave us our freedom..." and a second student finished the thought with "We give veterans our hearts. Mrs. Sommerville! We should make hearts!"

Of course I teared up.

And then got to work.

I traced a large open heart onto white tagboard:

...asked our aide to punch out red and blue stars (each student used six or seven of each, depending on how far apart they spaced them onto the heart):

After students affixed the stars around the heart in an AB pattern, they glued it onto purple backing paper (yes, one of my student's fathers is a Purple Heart recipient):

Students then wrote "Thank you Veterans. We love you." on handwriting paper and glued it onto the heart (apologies for the grainy photo):

Michaele, I want to tell you that you inspired me to do this project. I tweaked it a little and I am writing an article for Debbie Clement (which is how I came across your blog) and I will be siting your blog in my article!(Probably sometime early next week) Also, wanted to say, waterproof mascara is definitely a must! I find myself tearing up at some of the things that these young children are able to understand and able to TEACH us! I love it!

I admire how you are truly letting your students drive their learning – how inspirational! By first allowing them to work together collaboratively in defining what these complex words mean, like thankful and veterans, we make room for deeper learning to take place. When it came to the art project, I think it’s wonderful that the students were able to pursue something of interest and something meaningful for them. Thanks for sharing!